PHP: market

Vacancy

an open job that cleared the quality gate and lists at least two technologies

Observed candidate

a candidate whose stack contains this technology; an aggregate — not a single record leaves the perimeter

Matchable candidate

not counted yet

Window

jobs open at the moment the snapshot was built

PHP is one of the most Junior-friendly backend segments (alongside Java/.NET — lots of intern positions at web studios and 1C-Bitrix integrators). The biggest jump — Junior → Middle (Laravel/Symfony in production + Composer + PHPUnit). Career flow: Junior → Middle → Senior → Tech Lead / Full-stack PHP+Vue / PHP Architect.

Top 5: php, mysql, laravel, git, docker. PHP 8.2+ must (typed properties, enums, readonly, intersection types). Laravel 11 — dominator (Eloquent + Artisan + Queue + Horizon + Sanctum/Passport). Symfony 7 — enterprise + large SaaS (DI + Doctrine + Messenger). 1C-Bitrix — Russian-speaking niche CMS. WordPress + WooCommerce — content sites. DB: MySQL (dominator) or PostgreSQL (growing in Laravel). Redis + Laravel Queue. RabbitMQ via php-amqplib. Composer. Testing: PHPUnit or Pest (modern) + Mockery. Docker + Kubernetes. Xdebug / Blackfire / Tideways (profiling). Knowledge of OOP + SOLID + design patterns — Senior must.

Laravel — dominator of 60-70% of PHP jobs. Convention-over-configuration, batteries-included, excellent DX. Suits SaaS, e-commerce, product backends. Symfony — enterprise PHP. Component-based, Doctrine ORM (more powerful than Eloquent), Messenger for CQRS/event-driven. Magento 2 is on Symfony. Senior Symfony is usually 5-10% above Senior Laravel. 1C-Bitrix — Russian-speaking niche CMS for business. Huge CIS market in web studios and integrators. Salaries below Laravel/Symfony, but the largest Junior market in the PHP segment. Career strategy: Laravel first (market size), then Symfony for enterprise + 1C-Bitrix if you work with Russian-speaking corporate clients.

PHP wins on: (1) CMS projects (WordPress/Bitrix — 80% of the world's websites are on PHP). (2) Fast prototype + product backend with Laravel. (3) E-commerce (Magento 2, OpenCart). (4) Web studios and integrators. Node.js: full-stack JS, real-time, startups. Python: ML/AI/data. Pay: Senior PHP is 10-15% below Senior Node/Python in Moscow due to greater PHP-developer supply. Career strategy: PHP — if web agency/e-commerce/CMS domain. Node/Python — if startup/ML/real-time. Many Senior PHP engineers move into Node.js in 6-12 months.

Yes, 37% of PHP jobs are remote or hybrid. Web studios and 1C-Bitrix integrators — usually remote. EPAM PHP practice — almost always remote on US/EU projects. Russian product companies — hybrid or remote. Relocant hubs for Russian-speakers: Poland (Warsaw/Krakow — large Laravel/Symfony market), Germany, Czechia, Serbia, Georgia.

PHP Backend — server-side development: REST APIs, business logic, DB, CMS. Stateless by nature (a new PHP process per request). Node.js Backend — event-loop based, persistent connections, better for real-time + streaming. A modern PHP developer doesn't write frontend directly — the frontend is React/Vue with a PHP API. Career switch PHP Backend → Node.js Backend — 6-12 months (TypeScript + NestJS is a familiar paradigm for a Laravel developer). PHP → Frontend requires retraining on event-driven JS.

Roadmap: 1) PHP 8.2+ syntax — types, OOP, enums, readonly. Books: "Modern PHP" Lockhart. 2) SQL + MySQL/PostgreSQL. 3) Composer + base libraries (Guzzle/Carbon). 4) Laravel 11 — official tutorial + Laracasts (Jeffrey Way — best PHP teacher) + one pet (REST API with auth + Eloquent + Queue). 5) Symfony 7 basics — Symfony Casts. 6) PHPUnit or Pest for testing. 7) Docker basics + one deployment (Render/Railway/Forge). 8) Pet project: Laravel REST API + Vue 3 frontend + PostgreSQL + Redis + Queue, deployed. Courses: Otus "PHP Developer", HTMLAcademy, JavaRush PHP, Laracasts (EN, $99/yr — best resource). Time to Junior — 8-12 months.

399 active open PHP Backend positions. Geography: Russia / Ukraine / Poland. Sources: hh.ru, Habr Career, getmatch, Djinni, NoFluffJobs/JustJoin.it (Poland — large Laravel/Symfony market for Russian-speakers), LinkedIn (international Laravel/Symfony SaaS), Telegram, career pages of web studios and 1C-Bitrix integrators. Time to close a Senior PHP role — 3-5 weeks.

A Senior PHP Backend owns the full cycle. PHP core: PHP 8.2+ idioms (typed properties, enums, readonly, intersection types, first-class callable), php-fpm worker model, OPcache tuning. Laravel mastery: Eloquent N+1 + eager loading, Queue + Horizon, Sanctum/Passport, Service Container, Pipeline pattern. Symfony: DI container, Doctrine (Lazy loading, hydration modes), Messenger (CQRS + event-driven). Architecture: Clean Architecture + DDD, CQRS, event-sourcing, hexagonal. Performance: OPcache, Redis caching, query optimisation, Blackfire/Tideways profiling, php-fpm tuning. MySQL/PostgreSQL: advanced SQL, indexes, EXPLAIN ANALYZE. Testing: 70%+ coverage, Pest or PHPUnit + Mockery + Laravel Sail. Soft: code review, mentoring. English for Senior+ — must for outsourcing/EU.